A woman has filed suit against Southwest Airlines, claiming that the company’s longtime unassigned seating policy contributed to a drunk passenger assaulting her before a recent flight.
Livia Rombola was aboard a Southwest flight bound for Kansas City, Missouri from New York’s LaGuardia Airport back in June when she was attacked by Leanna Perry, a 32-year-old passenger from New York.
In a drunken assault caught on camera, Perry grabbed Rombola’s hair and screamed a variety of obscenities at her, including calling Rombola a “fat a– bitch.” Perry was eventually restrained and taken off the flight on a gurney, according to reports.
In a lawsuit filed in New York State Supreme Court in Brooklyn on Aug. 25, Rombola took aim at both Perry and Southwest Airlines, claiming that “repeated exposure to online videos, headlines, commentary and social ridicule re-traumatizes plaintiff and prolonged her recovery, including, invasion of privacy, involuntary exposure, reputational harm, professional embarrassment, and social stigma,” per the Daily Mail.
Southwest’s seating to blame?
Specifically, Rombola put some of the onus for the incident on Southwest’s seating policy.
Not having assigned seats for passengers has been a hallmark of the budget airline for decades, but in their filing, Rombola and her legal team called it “a clear departure from the industry standards of other airlines’ that ‘created a foreseeable hazard of passenger conflict.'”
The suit also says the “lack of proactive seat assignment directly contributed to the confrontation.”
Like every other airline, Southwest does use boarding groups for its flights, but allows customers to choose their seats on the plane on a first come, first served basis.
However, the airline announced earlier this summer that it will be eliminating that policy, starting on Jan. 26, 2026.
What’s next for all parties?
Rombola is seeking unspecified damages that “exceed jurisdictional limits of all other courts in New York State,” said the New York Post.
Perry is facing a litany of charges, including resisting arrest, obstructing governmental administration, disorderly conduct, three counts of harassment and three counts of attempted assault.
She pleaded not guilty in an initial court appearance and is due back in front of a judge on Sept. 3.
